Temp Temptation

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

Win XP Home SP2

The folder
C:\Documents and Settings\Profile Name\Local Settings\Temp

From the name, I surmise this is a temporary folder. But what exactly is it
used for? Do the files and folders in the Temp folder expire someday and
then get deleted? If not, does the folder just get bigger and bigger? And
*can* I just delete the folder's contents? Temporary Internet files can be
deleted safely, so is there any possible harm in deleting the contents of
this folder?

 

[DILIP]

This directory is analogous to the windows\temp directory in win98. It is
generally used when a program installs itself for instance - a place to
store the unzipped or temporary install files. While some programs make it
a point to clear off the folder, many don't, so it's best to just do a clean
reboot and then clear off the contents of the temp directory. The files
dumped there are usually fairly large and definitely worth deleting - They
are of no use after a clean reboot.

 

[Guest]

Clean Temporary Internet Files, Cookies and other temporary files:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/optimizewindowstempfiles.htm

Hope this helps!

 

[Guest]

Additionally, as this folder becomes filled with more and more items; your
logins will take longer. This is because the C:\Documents and
Settings\%username% and all of its subfolders make up a good portion of your
user profile. The larger this directory becomes the slower Windows will
perform when a user with a large profile is logged in.


If you know you won't delete these files very often then consider remapping
them to a folder on the system root. Create C:\_TEMP for example and then
modify the Environmental Vairables under System Properties to make the temp
files dump here. A downfall to this is that anyone can now view your temp
files and possibly recreate some of your Office documents etc.

 

[Trevor Macdonald]

Win XP Home SP2

The folder
C:\Documents and Settings\Profile Name\Local Settings\Temp

From the name, I surmise this is a temporary folder. But what exactly is it
used for? Do the files and folders in the Temp folder expire someday and
then get deleted? If not, does the folder just get bigger and bigger? And
*can* I just delete the folder's contents? Temporary Internet files can be
deleted safely, so is there any possible harm in deleting the contents of
this folder?

Oh ****. Nemo is back.

Who found him?

 

[Alex Nichol]

From the name, I surmise this is a temporary folder. But what exactly is it
used for? Do the files and folders in the Temp folder expire someday and
then get deleted? If not, does the folder just get bigger and bigger? And
*can* I just delete the folder's contents? Temporary Internet files can be
deleted safely, so is there any possible harm in deleting the contents of
this folder?

For any program to use for files it just wants temporarily. One example
is installing a program; the download you run may well unpack into that
and only then copy files to eventual places. They *ought* to get
cleared out when a program closes, but some are sloppy. So clear it out
regularly. Best done immediately after a normal boot (but not
automatically, one of those installations might reboot and want still to
use files from it in its second stage). If a file should be in use,
Windows will not let you delete it

 

[madmax]

Oh ****. Nemo is back.

Who found him?

Disney

--
To help you stay safe see: http://www.geocities.com/maxpro4u/madmax.html
This message is virus free as far as I can tell.
Change nomail.afraid.org to neo.rr.com so you can reply by e-mail
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in Usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

 

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- Nehmo -
- DILIP -

This directory is analogous to the windows\temp directory in win98. It is
generally used when a program installs itself for instance - a place to
store the unzipped or temporary install files. While some programs make it
a point to clear off the folder, many don't, so it's best to just do a clean
reboot and then clear off the contents of the temp directory. The files
dumped there are usually fairly large and definitely worth deleting - They
are of no use after a clean reboot.

- Nehmo -
The reason I'm cautious is that Disk Cleanup doesn't delete the
folder, nor does it even offer to. Also, System Mechanic 4.0f
http://www.iolo.com/sm/index.cfm , in the part of the app where it
deletes temporary files, doesn't delete that folder either.

So after a reboot, there's no purpose at all for the contents that
temp folder?

 

[Rock]

- Nehmo -



- DILIP -



- Nehmo -
The reason I'm cautious is that Disk Cleanup doesn't delete the
folder, nor does it even offer to. Also, System Mechanic 4.0f
http://www.iolo.com/sm/index.cfm , in the part of the app where it
deletes temporary files, doesn't delete that folder either.

So after a reboot, there's no purpose at all for the contents that
temp folder?

Yes you can safely delete the contents. If a file is being used windows
will say so. As a general precaution do a reboot and then delete the
contents immediately thereafter, but as a matter of routine I delete the
contents, not the folder itself, without a reboot, like just before
installing new software. The same is true of C:\WINDOWS\Temp. And I
never ran into a problem.

 

[DILIP]

Nehmo,
Disk clean up clears the *contents* of the temp folder, not the folder
itself. The folder, as I described earlier is a vital system folder and is
used very often. Deleting it, even if possible, is not desirable. But
deleting its contents after a fresh reboot is completely safe - As the name
suggests - those are just temporary files - Nothing critical to the
functioning of the computer.